Vietnam War Patrol Boat Visits GulfQuest:
Illinois-bound PTF-26 aka “Last American PT Boat”
5/25/2024
MOBILE, AL - While other Americans are relaxing this Memorial Day weekend, the crew of PTF-26 will be working hard to ensure their historic 95 foot Vietnam War fast patrol boat is ready to welcome visitors.
PTF-26 will be moored at GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico from Saturday, May 25 through Monday, June 17. The public is invited to view PTF-26 alongside the museum’s pier during regular museum hours, Wednesday through Saturdays, 10am to 4pm. Escorted tours of PTF-26 will be offered at no charge, depending on staff/volunteer availability.
An award-winning Sea Scout training ship since its release by the Navy in the 1990’s, PTF-26 is in the final stages of an epic, multi-year 10,000 mile “homeport shift” from Sacramento, CA to its permanent home at Golconda Marina in Golconda, IL.
Once there, PTF-26 will train Sea Scouts, Sea Cadets and NJROTC Cadets from a five-state region. Owned by Paducah-based 501 c.3 Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation, Ltd., PTF-26 will soon become the first maritime training vessel on the nation’s 2,600 mile Inland Waterway.
Nashville-based Ingram Barge Company is corporate sponsor of PTF-26’s “home stretch” on the famed Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. June 18 - 24 PTF-26 will be crewed by Ingram pilots, captains, engineers and mates for the 700 mile/15 lock trip from Mobile to Golconda.
PTF-26 and her three all-aluminum Osprey-class sister PTFs (fast patrol boats) were built in Berwick, LA in 1968 to replace five 80 ft. wooden Nasty-class PTFs lost to enemy action or mishaps in the previous two years.
Roughly two dozen PTFs were based at DaNang, South Vietnam, near the border with North Vietnam. PTFs operated almost exclusively under cover of darkness, engaged in highly-classified close-combat involving SEALs and special operators in coastal waters. Even after fifty years some aspects of PTF-26’s combat history remain classified.
